Former Sonic the Hedgehog Actor Roger Craig Smith Thanks Fans for Outpouring of Support

Longtime Sonic the Hedgehog voice actor Roger Craig Smith announced yesterday on social media that his time playing the iconic video game character would be coming to an end. Smith didn’t give a specific reason for why this move was happening, but that didn’t stop fans from expressing their love for the actor and what he brought to the role.

Now, a little over a day after the announcement, Smith has returned to Twitter once again and has posted a heartfelt thank you message to fans for the outpouring of support that he received in the wake of the news. “Wow! Slow news day yesterday?” Smith inquired jokingly at the start of the video. “I wanted to take a quick second to say thank you… to everybody who has reached out and said such kind and wonderful things on social media. I am overwhelmed. It was profoundly unexpected. Talk about a surreal day.”

Smith went on to end the video with the rather funny caveat that just because he’s done playing Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t mean he’s done acting as a whole. “I haven’t retired from voice acting! Just so we’re clear,” Smith said. “There’s more stuff coming your way, so stay tuned.”

Regardless of who ends up playing Sonic next in the beloved video game franchise, they’ll absolutely have large, red and white shoes to step into. Smith played the Blue Blur for a period of ten years across different mediums. Not only did he appear in all of the biggest Sonic games of the past few years, including Sonic Forces, Team Sonic Racing, and many, many more, but he also voiced the beloved hedgehog in the TV series Sonic Boom, which ended back in 2017.

If fans have their say with who gets to play Sonic next, it would seem Ben Schwartz has become one of the frontrunners, for obvious reasons. Schwartz voiced the character in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie which hit theaters last year and is set to return in the same role for the sequel, which begins filming in March. While he has said previously that he was never asked to do voice work for any Sonic role outside of the initial movie, perhaps Sega has now changed its mind after the film became such a success.

If you had your say, who would you like to see play Sonic the Hedgehog in the future? Let me know either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.